Special budget allocation sought for protection of disaster-prone coastal areas
Staff Correspondent
This Friday Environmental activists and civil society leaders called for a special allocation in the national budget to protect Bangladesh’s disaster-prone coastal regions.
They said that coastal areas were facing severe impacts from climate change and human-induced environmental degradation. The increasing frequency and intensity of cyclones, storm surges, floods, river erosion and land loss were adversely affecting the environment, agriculture, biodiversity and livelihoods of coastal communities.
The demand was raised at a human chain and rally held in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka, organised by research organisation Dream Research and Development Foundation (DRDF) and citizens’ platform, Sundarbans and Coastal Protection Movement. The programme was presided over by the movement’s coordinator, Nikhil Chandra Bhadra. A keynote paper was presented by Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University teacher and researcher Mir Mohammad Ali.
Among others, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh Ruhin Hossain Prince, teachers’ leader principal Akmal Hossain, former president of the Dhaka Reporters Unity Rafiqul Islam Azad, Udichi Shilpigoshthi general secretary Amit Ranjan Dey and Sachetan organisation general secretary Shakila Parvin addressed the gathering.
The speakers placed a 21-point demand, which includes declaring the country’s coastal belt a climate and disaster-vulnerable zone, establishing environmentally friendly economic zones, constructing sustainable embankments and repairing vulnerable ones.
Mir Mohammad Ali said that the coastal crisis was no longer merely a disaster management issue but also a matter of fishermen’s livelihoods, agriculture, fisheries resources, food security and the national economy.
The demand was raised at a human chain and rally held in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka, organised by research organisation Dream Research and Development Foundation (DRDF) and citizens’ platform, Sundarbans and Coastal Protection Movement. The programme was presided over by the movement’s coordinator, Nikhil Chandra Bhadra. A keynote paper was presented by Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University teacher and researcher Mir Mohammad Ali.
Among others, former general secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh Ruhin Hossain Prince, teachers’ leader principal Akmal Hossain, former president of the Dhaka Reporters Unity Rafiqul Islam Azad, Udichi Shilpigoshthi general secretary Amit Ranjan Dey and Sachetan organisation general secretary Shakila Parvin addressed the gathering.
The speakers placed a 21-point demand, which includes declaring the country’s coastal belt a climate and disaster-vulnerable zone, establishing environmentally friendly economic zones, constructing sustainable embankments and repairing vulnerable ones.
Mir Mohammad Ali said that the coastal crisis was no longer merely a disaster management issue but also a matter of fishermen’s livelihoods, agriculture, fisheries resources, food security and the national economy.
